reclaim your lead

  • 4.2K Views
  • Last Post 31 July 2008
idpasharpshooter posted this 23 March 2008

up untill recently i have been throwing my lead away when i shoot and thinking nothing of it, well i have solved that problem many man hours and many pounds of steel later i have the solution.

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NORMSUTTON posted this 23 March 2008

idpasharpshooter

great idea is that a collection box in the rear of it   NORM

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CB posted this 23 March 2008

That is pretty sharp! How do you access the lead from the collection box?

Have you had a round jump back out of the box?

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idpasharpshooter posted this 23 March 2008

that part in the back is a deceleration chamber, there is a crack in the bottom they fall out of, i need to build a box still, (debating what to make it out of) i just used a garbage bag for testing.  i will post a pic later.

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idpasharpshooter posted this 23 March 2008

i worked on it more today here is what i got done.

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CB posted this 24 March 2008

Yep that is pretty trick stuff! Nice job...

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jhalcott posted this 06 April 2008

sharp shooter. we haven't heard from you about how this trap worked. Haven't shot your self in the foot have you?? That device looks like the “SNAIL” trap at the local police range . Theirs is a bit bigger with a much larger deceleration chamber. They shoot rifles and hand guns at it.

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idpasharpshooter posted this 08 April 2008

i've taken it out 2 times now, the first time i used a cardboard target backer so the lead that came out was pretty clean. the second time i used a pice of fiber board and a larg amout of the board got in with the lead.  to seperate it i dumped the lead/wood mix in water and skimmed the wood off the top.  there was still some wood in with the lead.  the lead was still a little wet so i filled my pot with the fragmented lead and turned my pot on low and baked the lead for about an hour and slowly turned up the heat.  i ran into a problem when there was so much burnet wood on top of the liquid lead that the lead on top would not melt but i was able to stir it enough to get the dirt to the top. so aside from needing to do away with the fiber board target backer and the fact the lead comes out from any size between half a bullet and lead powder it works quite well.  it will be a few weeks before i use it agian because i am laid up due to back surgary.  i cant even drive for another 3 weeks.

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CB posted this 08 April 2008

Sorry to hear you are laid up from surgery, hope everything turns out well.

Something to think on though...

The wood in the lead mix, although it may be a pita, is good stuff to flux with! Imagine, lead you can get that has a fluxing agent built in..

I reclaim a lot of lead, I mean A LOT... Tons of the stuff. I have a couple of ranges I have at my disposal so soft lead is not a problem. One of the indoor ranges uses 1x4's to hang targets from and there is generally a lot of wood fragments in the lead. I use the least amount of fluxing agents to clean this lead up as the wood does that job for me when I melt it in bulk (150 lbs at a time)...

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CB posted this 08 April 2008

Get a piece of the corrugated plastic board for a target backer to shoot into and try to keep the lead as clean as possible. The range lead I've recycled is a real pain to clean with wood fragments, shredded target paper, etc. The material acts as a heat sink and makes it a lot harder to melt, a lot more BTUs wasted to get rid of the stuff! :X  .................Dan

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CB posted this 08 April 2008

I will have to get a picture of my latest experiment on how I solved that problem.

I made this hoopajew up out of some channel alum and made a dam of sorts with a series of holes drilled at the bottom and attached it to a stand so it can be tilted back and forth.

I put the range scrap in at one end and melt it with a plumbers torch, the lead flows through the small holes in the dam and down into my batch pot, the copper and sand and other range debris stays above the dam. Then I tilt it the other way and the scrap stuff gets dumped into a tray to cool where I can then wash it and sort the copper out and take it down to the scrap yard.

The lead is much cleaner than trying to melt it in the batch pot, melts faster and the whole operation is faster.

I will try to get out to the garage tonite and get a pic.

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CB posted this 08 April 2008

I made it out to the garage to get some photo's of whatever you want to call this thing.

usrimages/ls1.jpg

usrimages/ls2.jpg

usrimages/ls3.jpg

The lead you see in the pot is the result of about 2 hours worth of work including the time to make this jig up. The plumbers torch is supposed to be used with mapp gas, but that is far too expensive and I have a set up to refill the small propane bottles.

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idpasharpshooter posted this 09 May 2008

im starting to get back on my feet i went out shooting last monday (we have weekly pratice shoots for idpa)  my upper back got sore after about 20 rounds just like it did when i first started shooting 3 years ogo so i guess i will have to strenthen it agian

anyhow this monday i think im going to take the trap with me and use it.

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runfiverun posted this 10 May 2008

get some one to help ta roll that thing.

don't be hurting your back,before you are fully healed.:shock:

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idpasharpshooter posted this 31 July 2008

i have been taking the trap out allmost every monday for the last month or so now.  i finally got sick of the fiberboard target backer and went back to card board.   there is so little junk in the lead now.  one thing i noticed is the powdered lead does not melt down.  is there anything i can do to get it to melt.

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RicinYakima posted this 31 July 2008

Powdered lead, especially if it has turned white, is going to be problematic about melting. This lead has oxidized into lead oxide, and getting it to release the oxygen and turn back into lead metal can be hard to do.

I've had best results with high heat, about 800 measured degrees, and fluxing with beeswax. Even then, if I can get 40-50% I'm doing good.

Prevention is the best medicine. Try gathering it up at the end of the day and putting it in a small sealed container to keep as much moisture and air away as possible.

HTH, Ric

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